On buying gear: enjoyment not evolution

A great deal of ink has been spent in the photographic press on the question of the superiority of digital photography over film and the former’s inexorable rise to prominence in the industry. Fear not, for this is not yet another film vs digital tract; I think my own position of a ‘either or both, as you desire’ is a subtext of my blog, if not something I have broached on occasion.
 
I think a better question, in this golden age of availability of photographic equipment and consumer choice, is ‘what aspects of your photography do you enjoy?’ Then there is a related question: how might an answer help you shape your engagement and buying choices?
 
I am enamoured with small format cameras that have the potential to make big prints. My Sony A7II fits this bill very well, and there are other Sonys that fit the bill even better (I have in mind the A7 ‘R’s and their iterations, and naturally we could add other makes and models). I like to walk around with a piece of technology with this capability in my hand. The digital viewfinder has the ability to aid rigorous focussing and this is an integral part of large-print making. 
 
Yet I am aware that the experience of using the Sony A7 viewfinder leaves me a little cold. For this part of my photography I look to my Leica M6TTL and mostly black and white film. An uncluttered viewfinder in combination with the most simple operation brings me closer to my subject and lets me focus on the moment. The thought of the exposure being laid on film, together with my understanding of how to process and print my images - in short, my visualisation - is integral to my existential photographic pleasure. (Lest my struggle for the right words imply an otherworldly dimension to this, I think this is a largely technical and mechanical effect - belonging to the medium.) Do my Leica negatives compete with my Sony A7 for large prints? Of course not, nor do I expect them too. The point is that the Leica brings a quite different dimension to my practice.
 
When I analyse my choices in the acquisition of equipment, I realise that I have made some very conscious decisions regarding what I enjoy, and moreover that I live with the compromises of my chosen media because I see them as integral parts of it. Living with limitations makes you work with them, and before too long you begin to enjoy them too. Critical photographers will ask not just what they need, but whether what they have is still right for them. For me, simply possessing it means that it must continue to be chosen - or be replaced by something else that gets me closer to this photographic enjoyment.
 
So look not on your equipment as a marker in an evolutionary scale of advancement (the old digital bettering film), its increasing age signalling a need for replacement, but as an indication of your photographic enjoyment. ‘Upgrade’ if you must, not to abstractly improve your equipment, but to better serve your personal and idiosyncratic needs.
 

Quiet on the blog front (and large format frustrations)

Regular readers will have noticed it's been somewhat quiet on the blog front around here. Apologies for the small hiatus, it's been a product of several factors, not least the Easter holidays (and a spot of long overdue DIY at home).

Speaking of holidays, I did have a short break with my family in a splendid woodland location. This place lent itself well to large format photography, and I enjoyed some time continuing with said project. I have yet to develop the exposures I made, so I can't comment on any results. I can't say I settled into the process with any ease, indeed the opposite was most probably true. I noticed a few things.

Large format is a physically demanding discipline. Even with my lightweight Intrepid camera (and admittedly not-so-lightweight old school Manfrotto tripod), the gear plus modest hiking led to some tired muscles (ok, sedentary me needs to get used to this bit). I really wanted to be inspired .... but wasn't. Lastly, and on reflection, my natural instinct was to make all the while like a small format photographer: look, shoot, move on, repeat. Large format just doesn't let you do this. Numerous times I set up quickly (camera onto tripod, metering etc.), only to turn my nose up at the scene, or pack up to the pull of 'what might be over the next hill'. I was going just too fast for LF.

This isn't a verdict on LF for me, just where I am right now. From time to time I had a whiff of the possible satisfactions of the format, but for now they remain just that, a promise of satisfactions to come. The learning curve isn't just about the gear or the pace of shooting a single frame. Like all types of photography, there's a whole MO and frame of mind.

I hope you all had a pleasant Easter.

P.S. If anybody comes across a cable release in the wood pictured above, it's mine. Not the last one I'll lose, I'm sure.

Birmingham Street in Winter Light

A dash of smartphone photography for your perusal today.

The light was stunning on this crisp December day, crystal clear and casting characteristic winter shadows. I had arrived at Birmingham in a high-rise car park and was stopped by the view. My mobile phone provided the tool to take advantage of the scene.

I converted the file to black and white in Lightroom and made a few modest tonal adjustments. I added the black border to stop the lighter edge tones from getting lost. The shape of the striding man in the middle puts me in mind of Louis Daguerre's photograph Boulevard du Temple of 1838, which is often cited as the first ever photograph to contain human beings.